Saturday, October 11, 2014

HOT METRO FINDS: The Great Chicago Fire Festival - Ted Cantu

THE GREAT CHICAGO FIRE FESTIVAL - 2014

As soon as I heard about this experience I was hooked on the idea. I found a picture on social media about a 1871 style Chicago wooden house set on afloating barge in the river with the sign, “Come Watch Me Burn” and I was intrigued with it. I made it a point to get over there to see what all the fuss was about. Now of course this type of thing was hyped up for months on the radio and social media and it got the locals all riled up. There was a reported $2 Million dollars roped into this deal and some of the residents didn’t like the idea of it getting thrown away on an arts festival.

The idea was to have this floating river festival with these burning houses. To me, that was all I really needed. I might grab some food down there and people watch – you know? No big deal. I disregarded all of the social media yammering from the local, “crabasses”, my new favorite word, (thanks Chicago) and went there for a good time. Lo and behold there was a reported 10,000 people at the river front and the crowds were building up by the minute. This was no small thing and there was a lot of media coverage overhead with helicopters and spotlights. It turns out the locals arrived in droves. Over the river I could see the patio for Dick’s Last Resort and it was jam packed with party goers. There were people celebrating this event on the big river cruise boats and to my right it looked like some people even rented out rooms in hotels and were throwing parties. There was lights, people, and car traffic backed up all around the Michigan avenue bridge and the State street bridge.

Now, you know how this story ends right? It’s all over the news as being one of the biggest busts in Chicago history. But before I get to that part I want to get into the drama of this thing. People were waiting for something to happen. The sky blue and magenta lights were focused on the floating house raft. No fire but we were hopeful. Apparently there was supposed to be some sort of pageantry from the Red Moon Theater people. I was like, “Okay, but hurry it up – we’ve been standing here for almost  an hour already…..”, (we got there early). First this boat comes out with the Chicago Children’s Choir on it singing about theloss of lives to the people who died in the fire. I’ll be honest with you I got a little emotional. I mean I was nice and I got a little weepy. But  damn, they didn’t stick around long they just sort of zipped right though and cleared out of the way fast.



Then we got these kayaks out there with these flaming cauldrons attached to the back ends of them. It was kind of confusing because they were slow. People started cheering and we thought they would light the houses on fire. Nope. They just kind of circled around them while people cheered. I didn’t have the printed program in front of me so I was unclear of the events. There was some guy on the loudspeaker who was narrating the thing but there was no clear objective to what we were supposed to be experiencing. Sometime either before or after the kayaks there was some guy on a boat banging on some kind of gong for whatever reason. I totally didn’t get the reason why or what he was even there for but I’m sure it was significant. I just missed the reference because I had no guide and was just kind of going with the flow but now by this time my foot was falling asleep. I wanted this thing to get on already. It was about 8:45 PM by this point and I couldn’t stick around much longer I had tickets to go see Agent Orange at the Double Door.

There was a weird steamship that came out too. It was zipping around the houses shooting fire out of its steam stack or something. It was odd looking and was definitely homemade for the festival. It has been referred to as the Steampunk ship but it looked out of place with the theme of the festival. Speaking of festival I didn’t see any food trucks or beer tents from where we were standing. I wished I had stood over by Dick’s Last Resort… I’mserious.

Sometime around this point the narrator comes back on and is talking about the actual fire. Back at the time of the Great Chicago Fire the whole city was made out of wooden buildings and wooden sidewalks. There was talk of a drought and how the whole city was a tinderbox. The lights on the houses were now orange and red to give off a firey glow. The music was cranked up and it was a Tim Burton-esque kind of sound on a loop. This horrific music permeated the air for about 2 minutes and I could see the crowd get agitated because by now we were all elbow to elbow and there was still more people coming down the stone staircases to join us by the river. That music continued to blare on and after about 10 minutes it felt like torture. I was worried that it was going to enter into my subconscious and stay there infinitely.

There was an announcement telling us about technical difficulties. There was moans in the audience. I assured the crowd, “Hey I can start a fire faster than these guys can…. Anybody want to see a fire?” the whole crowd cheered, “YEAH !!!”.   It turns out that some rain had damaged the ignition switches on these floating houses and this prevented a fire from happening.



A cow wiped out half of the city. That’s what we have all been told and I’m thinking we should’ve hired a cow to run this thing right. What a disaster. I couldn’t wait around any longer I had to get going so I could get to the show. I had four bands to review so I started to make my way back to the stairs. People were still waiting around for something to happen when I left. There was supposed to be fireworks too. I understand those did happen.

I was looking forward to seeing these houses burn on the river. To me that sounded like a pretty interesting time. But the pageantry or program as it were was a confusing fiasco to watch. The overall experience was that of frustration and confusion and turned into a test of endurance. We stood on a grassy river embankment at an angle so the calves on my legs were feeling great strain after almost two hours of nothing.


There is supposed to be a second annual next year to this thing. So I’ll tell you what. I will be there but will be watching it either from Dick’s Last Resort enjoying a nice drink and some appetizers. I won’t be standing on the riverside waiting for things to happen. I hope next year’s presentations is shaved down to about 30 minutes tops.

Friday, October 1, 2010

CT Real Estate Marketing: In Defense of The NAR SEO Report

In Defense of The NAR SEO Report
** If you haven't seen this one yet, you should take a look at it:


The National Associations of Realtors (NAR) released a report earlier this year that rounded out the best of search engine optimization practices, (SEO). The report was immediately ripped to shreds by a disgruntled real estate agent and then it was posted on the web - gaining a top Google spot. This is something that is worth reading as its gained a lot of attention on the web.

There are a lot of truths in this report that are beneficial. The report doesn't go into very much technique and this is where it becomes confusing. Here are the 6 core elements that the NAR focused on in their report....

 Week 1: Write Better Page Titles

 Week 2: Broadcast Your Links

 Week 3: Use Keywords Generously

 Week 4: Reword Outgoing Links

 Week 5: Develop a Site Map

 Week 6: Tweet About It


You can read the slam here --
http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/bad-seo-advice-for-real-estate-agents-from-the-nar/2929/

Here is the technical perspective. You need titles that reflect what people are actively searching for. You can get that information straight from Google's FREE Adword Keyword tool. You should use the exact phrases that people type in to the search engine and include them in your web copy. You will want to use the exact words so you can tap into the active searches. Some of these keyword phrases carry 57,000 searches a month etc.

You should get into the habit of using press releases that use keyword phrases in it. These tend to get picked up and distributed freely on the web. You want your press release to get picked up on major media sites and you can do that by submitting your press releases directly or using a service. Authority sites carry a large PR rank which can generate a strong link back to your site boosting it up in the search engines. I like to personally go after online media sources that carry a PR7 or a PR8.

** There is more I could write about this... its a deep topic.

Contact me direct!
248-631-9211

http://www.tedcantu.com

http://www.1searchengineoptimizationrealestate.org

Friday, October 12, 2007

Search Engine Marketing: Return to Fraudsville USA

WELCOME TO THE NEW AGE
Just when you thought it was safe to trust the web hacks. You know? The same louts that brought on the Dot Bomb movement? Trouble brews ahead.

But only if you know where to look.

This week brought on some troubling news. The common misconception that web visibility brings on INSTANT web traffic is just absurd. Yet this is what a lot of companies are being promised in this new round of online marketing. Its enough to make you want to jump out an open window.

SO WHY NOT GO BACK TO PPC?
Pay Per Click traffic doesn't quite cut it. As you know as soon as your money runs out your high level rankings will slip in the process. Unfortunately this is the first place we think of when we want to get more traffic. We expect to get what we want to get attention en masse.

But there are serious limitations to this. Even if you go for the cheap PPC programs off of MSN. True, on one hand you can get some random traffic for just pennies a click. But you're still not getting the right kind of online visitors coming to your site.

ROI?
Hearing the words ROI and PPC in the same sentence is common for traditional pay per click marketing firms. There are a lot of ways to blur the facts with statistics and budgets. I snub my nose on a lot of these programs because a lot of them are all fluff.

If you want hardcore results from your online marketing campaign you will have to dig deeper into OPT IN traffic and niche categories. And what a lot of companies are not aware of is that you can get attention without PPC.

Viral Marketing is a great way to penetrate your niche market base. Until recently getting a great viral marketing tool took a certain degree of programming. This has changed to a great extent over recent months.

* The Internet Marketing Center has great tools including Ebook Pro
* OPT IN forms (asking for friends email addresses)
* Selling ebooks on Ebay as lead generators
* Satellite Sites with Squeeze Pages

To market your business online means you have to be ONLINE. That means you have to actively participate in new web site services to see if they are worth it or not. It means you have to take your chances with Podnova, Blubrry, Digg, Squidoo and Orkut to see if they can best benefit you or not. It also means not to get stuck with one technology and become dependent on it. This is something that you must do for your business.

The Internet world is become more intricate and one must keep on top of the trends.

GETTING WHAT YOU WANT
Understanding who owns what is key. Yahoo and Google work together in limited amounts. They also share some commonalities - example, MyYahoo. Google also owns Feedburner as of last week as well as Blogger. So it makes sense to have the four of these services working together. There are many other alliances out there that you should be made aware of.

This lends itself to synchronous web speak. These services talk to eachother about your business and as a result you can get your pages indexed. If you take the time to understand what each individual service requires you can get your pages indexed in a matter of hours instead of days.

You know it wasn't that long ago when Google took its time when it came time to indexing a web page. Sometimes you had to wait months. Sometimes you had to wait as long as seven months. This has changed significanly in the recent weeks.

NOTE: If you understand what these services are all looking for you can actually get your pages indexed in as little as an hour. I kid you not. I have had blog entries pop up in Google in about 60 minutes after I wrote them.

So the next time you hear of a PPC firm that pumps strong ROI and requests a big budget -- remember what I said.

Posted by Ted Cantu on Oct. 12, 2007 at 9:18 PM

Thursday, October 4, 2007

How Powerful Is Your List?

Getting the numbers for your TOTAL online marketing list is important. If you are like most people you have your list divided by MANY different services......

You will start to build special group list and soon realize that your influence will touch many different online lives. This can come from blog communities, RSS feeds, podcast audiences,
and social networks.

As you build your list you will soon find the need to divide them and to put them in categories. Not everyone in your list is going to be able to buy from you directly. You must understand this early on so you can begin to get precise.

So for example your TOTAL online marketing list can look like this.....

AOL - 200

Podomatic - 2,200
MySpace - 4,600
Blogger - 400
LinkedIN - 800
OPT IN Traffic - 800

Now you are playing with power... get it?

The Opt In part you got to pay particular attention to. This means that the people who contact you have to make the first move. They have to come to you directly and sign up for your newsletters etc.

Pay close attention as you get these.....

Now you can add up your list and for the first time see what kind of marketing power you truly have. Take this list and treat it gently. Its valuable and every one on it could lead to a potential sale.

Posted by Ted Cantu on Oct. 3, 2007 at 6:33 PM

HOW TO GET BANNED FROM GOOGLE

Great Podcast About Things NOT TO DO in Online Marketing....



Click here to get your own player.



Posted by Ted Cantu on Oct. 3, 2007 at 6:22 PM

Saturday, September 15, 2007

How To Write Sales Copy - STEP BY STEP



Cantu and Dadich posted this Sept. 15, 2007 at 7:52 PM

Rethinking The Mind For Wealth

The Money Machine: The Online Marketing Show
Give it a listen!
Rethinking The Mind For Wealth


Enjoy! -- 911 Copywriters

"Got a Poor Wealth Consciousness? Stop Breaking Your Family's Heart!!"

Listen to this intriguing podcast. It goes into the best of what Joe Vitale, Wayne Dyer, and Napoleon Hill has to say about acquiring a healthy wealth attracting mindset. Don't even think about creating another paycheck before listening to this podcast.....

Posted by Cantu on Sept. 15, 2007 at 7:46 PM